Locavoracious Brunch

Jack's family came by this morning, and we put them to work making a stick-to-your-ribs brunch. It's surprising to me how much of the food we just have on hand --even in the winter, even when just using leftovers and cupboard staples, even when not cooking vegetarian -- happens to have local roots. That's a radical change in my eating habits over the last year or so.

The pancakes are what we call "Suzanna pancakes," for a former housemate who taught us to make Maine-style, multigrain, everything-in-them pancakes. (Mark Bittman also knows about whole-grain pancakes, but I prefer our adaptation of a traditional pancake recipe, which just substitutes more interesting flours one-for-one with the white/cake flour). Today's dry mixture included white flour, cake flour, whole wheat flour, flaxseed meal, and barley flour (from Four Star Farms via our Enterprise farm share). The add-ins were mixed frozen fruit (including some we picked at Smolak Farms last summer), grated carrot (via Red Fire Farm), walnuts and sunflower seeds, and cardamom and cinnamon.

The frittata features Phoenix Hill Farm bacon and eggs (the farmer is a friend of Sara's, and let me just say, they could sell bacon to a vegetarian co-op). As well, it includes a selection of cheeses (including our Red Fire Farm share Fiore di Nonno mozzarella), green onions, and braising greens (also from Red Fire). The topping is the leftovers of a genius smoked tomato cream sauce from Dave's Fresh Pasta, which is dangerously close to the new house.